SALTLAND

A Common Truth is the second album by Saltland, the solo project of Montréal cellist and composer Rebecca Foon (Esmerine, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames). Combining acoustic, amplified, processed and sampled cellos, Foon presents a new song cycle that features her instrument as source for almost all sounds on the record – with the notable exception of special guest Warren Ellis, who contributes violin, pump organ and loops to the album’s four instrumental tracks – and takes climate change as its theme (Foon is co-founder of Pathway to Paris, among other organizing and activist roles in the decarbonization movement).

A Common Truth is an album of meditative intensity that alternates between wordless instrumentals and lyric-driven pieces, balancing austere, organic intimacy and lush, layered expansiveness. The album was recorded and mixed by Jace Lasek (Suuns, Besnard Lakes, Wolf Parade, Land Of Talk).

A Common Truth CD package features a custom mini-gatefold jacket printed on 100% recycled 24pt paperboard and a printed inner dust sleeve for the disc. Image shows the jacket cover, partial sleeve, and inside spread of the open gatefold jacket.

The compositional style may be classical, but the delivery is modern and mesmerizing . . . Foon turns out to be a surprisingly sweet singer, one whose voice itself is a lozenge."–A Closer Listen

Cellist and composer Rebecca Foon has been a fixture of the Montréal music community for two decades. She co-founded the Juno Award-winning contemporary chamber group Esmerine in 2002 and was a core member of the celebrated cult post-punk band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra from 2001-2008 and the experimental instrumental collective Set Fire To Flames. Foon was also a founding member of the instrumental trios The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary and Fifths of Seven.

Alongside over a dozen albums as a composer and player with the aforementioned projects, Foon has a long list of recording and performing credits as a guest player, and several soundtrack projects under her belt (including the award-winning tar sands documentary H2Oil). Most recently, she has been a member of Colin Stetson’s acclaimed “Sorrow” orchestra (performing Gorecki's 3rd Symphony) and part of the band for the live documentary performances of filmmakers Sam Green and Brent Green.

Bountiful and expansive...[Foon] crafts a complex and dense soundscape so rich in detail that repeated listens always reveal further treasures. This is a quietly powerful, and intensely beautiful, record whose contemplations will bed themselves in your mind and hopefully move you towards caring about the issues raised as deeply as she clearly does."– MusicOhm ★★★★

Orchestral tones, shoegaze and drone conjure up vast, lonely terrains. Mountainous and haunting. With her cello bow as her chisel, Rebecca Foon sculpts her deepest ruminations into being, daring us to look away.”– Record Collector ★★★★

As this consistently satisfying follow-up to 2013's I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us shows, Foon's is a singular artistic voice."– Textura

Cellist Rebecca Foon has crafted something with real emotional depth and scope. She takes cues from sources as diverse as drone and freak folk while hewing devotedly to her core instrument. No matter your tastes and inclinations, you may be surprised just how affecting the album proves to be."– Popmatters 8/10

It’s a peaceful protest, a lament, a war cry, an elegy and a statement of injured hope."– A Closer Listen

With a voice equally suited to opening petals and opening wounds, Foon sings to the earth like a mother to a newborn, beaming with hope while gripped with fear. But she also offers an alternate form of resistance: transformation."– NPR